Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images], who was on a four-day tour to South Africa, has cut short her visit to the country, the Indian High Commission spokesperson said.

Due to circumstances beyond their control, the Indian High Commission spokesperson said, they had now arranged for Gandhi to visit only Johannesburg and Cape Town. Her trip to Durban had been cancelled from the itinerary.

Although no reasons have been given for her itinerary being cut short, it is believed that the political crisis over the Indo-US nuclear deal is the cause behind it.

Gandhi is scheduled to meet the country's former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Tuesday and then travel to Cape Town to hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Thursday.

She will also deliver a lecture on 'The Relevance of Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century' at the University of Cape Town after which she would return to Johannesburg and fly back to New Delhi, the spokesman said.

The Indian Consul General's office in Durban has said arrangements had been made for her to visit the Mahatma Gandhi [Images] Settlement in the city, and Pietermaritzburg railway station where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of a train for riding in a whites-only coach.

She was to inaugurate the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Centre at the Durban Institute of Technology.